Switch triggered traffic tracking

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods provide for performing performance analytics processing of network traffic by copying packets of network traffic to a switch CPU based on a flag. The systems and methods disclosing receiving network traffic comprising one or more packet, generating a network traffic flow record associated with the received network traffic, the network traffic flow record including a copy-to-CPU bit and one or more function flag bits, setting the copy-to-CPU bit to an on configuration, processing the one or more packets by one or more functions to generate network flow analytics, wherein the one or more function flag bits are set in response to the one or more functions generating network flow analytics, and setting the copy-to-CPU bit to an off configuration.

CROSS-REFERENCE

This application is related to and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) from U.S. Patent Appl. No. 62/769,601, filed Nov. 20, 2018entitled “SWITCH TRIGGERED TRAFFIC TRACKING,” the entire contents ofeach of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The subject matter of this disclosure relates in general to the field ofcomputer networking, and more particularly, to systems and methods forimproving the operation of an enterprise network.

BACKGROUND

A campus network can provide connectivity to computing devices (e.g.,servers, workstations, desktop computers, laptop computers, tablets,mobile phones, etc.) and things (e.g., desk phones, security cameras,lighting, heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC), windows,doors, locks, medical devices, industrial and manufacturing equipment,etc.) within environments such as offices, hospitals, colleges anduniversities, oil and gas facilities, factories, and similar locations.Some of the unique challenges a campus network may face includeintegrating wired and wireless devices, on-boarding computing devicesand things that can appear anywhere in the network and maintainingconnectivity when the devices and things migrate from location tolocation within the network, supporting bring your own device (BYOD)capabilities, connecting and powering Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices,and securing the network despite the vulnerabilities associated withWi-Fi access, device mobility, BYOD, and IoT.

Current approaches for deploying a network capable of providing thesefunctions often require constant and extensive configuration andadministration by highly skilled network engineers operating severaldifferent systems (e.g., directory-based identity services;authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) services, wirelesslocal area network (WLAN) controllers; command line interfaces for eachswitch, router, or other network device of the network; etc.) andmanually stitching these systems together. This can make networkdeployment difficult and time-consuming, and impede the ability of manyorganizations to innovate rapidly and to adopt new technologies, such asvideo, collaboration, and connected workspaces.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

To provide a more complete understanding of the present disclosure andfeatures and advantages thereof, reference is made to the followingdescription, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a physical topology of an enterprisenetwork in accordance with some examples;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a logical architecture for anenterprise network in accordance with some examples;

FIGS. 3A-3I illustrate examples of graphical user interfaces for anetwork management system in accordance with some examples;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a physical topology for a multi-siteenterprise network in accordance with some examples;

FIG. 5A illustrates an example of a switch triggered traffic trackingsystem in accordance with some examples;

FIG. 5B illustrates a block diagram of an example switch system inaccordance with some examples;

FIG. 5C illustrates a flowchart of an example method for switchtriggered traffic tracking in accordance with some examples;

FIG. 5D illustrates a flowchart of an example method for generating flowmetrics in accordance with some examples; and

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate examples of systems in accordance with someexamples.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

The detailed description set forth below is intended as a description ofvarious configurations of embodiments and is not intended to representthe only configurations in which the subject matter of this disclosurecan be practiced. The appended drawings are incorporated herein andconstitute a part of the detailed description. The detailed descriptionincludes specific details for the purpose of providing a more thoroughunderstanding of the subject matter of this disclosure. However, it willbe clear and apparent that the subject matter of this disclosure is notlimited to the specific details set forth herein and may be practicedwithout these details. In some instances, structures and components areshown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the concepts ofthe subject matter of this disclosure.

Overview

Systems, methods and non-transitory computer-readable media aredescribed for generating telemetry and other network analytics data fornetwork traffic as it flows across a network switch application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC). In some examples, a network traffic flowrecord may be generated by a network switch ASIC for tracking networktraffic. The network traffic flow record may include a flag, such as abit, which can be set from “off” to “on” (e.g., changing the value ofthe bit from “0” to “1”) in order to copy packets of the respectivenetwork flow to a processing device, such as a CPU, of the networkswitch (e.g., the bit may be a “copy-to-CPU” bit). Packets copied to theCPU can be inspected by network functions stored on-device, such asNetwork Based Application Recognition (NBAR), Encrypted TrafficAnalytics (ETA), Application Response Time (ART), Performance Monitoring(Perfmon), and others. Processing of the packets can be performed byeach function in turn and bit flags can be assigned to each function sothat once all function bit flags have been cleared following completionof packet processing, the copy-to-CPU bit may also be cleared andnetwork traffic can continue across the switch ASIC without being copiedfor analytics. Results of the functions can be provided to downstreamservices and processes such as, for example, Cisco® DNA Center and thelike.

Example Embodiments

In many situations, a network administrator may wish to know howapplications are performing over a network. For example, a networkadministrator may wish to inspect application performance over a campusnetwork to identify a problem area, isolate domains, determine rootcauses for a problem, and/or remediate application performance issues. Aswitch-based performance monitoring service that monitors trafficrelated to applications as it traverses one or more switches in anetwork may provide granular and detailed traffic information (e.g.,related to the application, etc.) so that, for example, a networkadministrator can identify problem areas and solutions withoutnecessitating large scale processing of all network traffic. In effect,the switch-based performance monitoring service enables scalablemonitoring and processing of network traffic.

In most cases, detailed analysis of Real Time Protocol (RTP) flows andTransmission Control Protocol (TCP) flows cannot be performed in anetwork data plane. For example, the Unified Access Data Plane (UADP)ASIC (e.g., hardware) is not able to perform granular processing of RTPand TCP flows due to hardware limitations (e.g., processing speed,memory size/allocation, etc.). However, processing the data flows can beperformed in software by one or more processing devices (e.g., a CentralProcessing Unit (CPU), etc.) on a switch within the respective network.

In many cases, though, CPU processes cannot scale to large networks ornetworks with high throughput demands, such as campus gigabit andmulti-gigabit speed networks. However, a subset of traffic processed bya switch (e.g., “interesting” traffic) can be defined and identified forcopying to the processor (e.g., the CPU) for analysis either by theprocessor or after being forwarded to a control plane data flow.

Interesting traffic can be defined as, for example and without imputinglimitation, network traffic related to a specific application(s),network traffic generated by a specific user, a network traffic sourcedfrom or destined to a specific network endpoint, network traffic sourcedfrom or destined to a specific application server, a sample of anaggregate traffic flow (e.g., 10% of all packets are analyzed), etc.

Interesting traffic need not be defined on a per-device basis. Forexample, an assurance platform may define and/or maintain definitions ofinteresting traffic. Furthermore, “interesting” traffic definitions canbe altered on demand because the definitions may be updated by a controlplane interface and/or the assurance platform. For example, if aspecific user is having issues with a video application, then a filtercan be generated based on interesting traffic definitions and may beapplied by the assurance platform on-the-fly by a network administratoror the like for troubleshooting purposes. The definitions may applyacross any and/or every switch in the network or along a path ofrelevant traffic flow based on a topology of the network (e.g., using atopology awareness utility, etc.).

Additionally, further performance optimizations can be realized by notcollecting unconsumed metrics. For example, where an applicationresponse time (ART) monitor may measure 26 Key Performance Indicators(KPIs) for providing to an associated assurance platform that onlyconsumes six KPIs for performing analytics. In effect, CPU processingloads may be alleviated by only collecting KPIs of interest by defininginteresting traffic according to the KPIs of interest for performinganalytics by the assurance platform.

In some examples, traffic from a user device may arrive to a switch at agiven port or VLAN on a switch. The switch may be part of a data plane(e.g., routers, switches, servers, etc.) of a private network, such as acampus or enterprise network. The user device may be a laptop, computer,mobile device (e.g., smartphone, tablet, etc.), or other networkconnected device on the private network. While a user device isdiscussed here as an example, in other examples traffic may arrive froma server, terminal, or other network endpoint of the private network.

A new network flow record can be generated by the switch hardware (e.g.,a UADP-ASIC) for a respective user device traffic flow. The record maybe an entry in a table, a tuple data structure (e.g., a 5-tuplecontaining origin, destination, bitflags, etc.). A bitflag within orassociated with the network flow record (e.g., a toggle-able bit) may beset into an off configuration (e.g., set to “0”) by default. In someexamples, the default state of the bitflag may be based on the switchconfiguration for traffic-analysis filtering criteria on the new networkflow record.

The bitflag may be toggled into an on configuration (e.g., set to “1”)automatically by, for example, an assurance platform performingautomated troubleshooting operations or a network administrator, etc. Inthe on configuration, the bitflag may indicate that a copy of thepackets for network traffic associated with the relevant network flowrecord should be sent to the switch CPU (e.g., a “copy-to-CPU” bit)while the traffic is otherwise forwarded in hardware as normal (e.g., toa next hop, network interface, etc.).

Multiple functions on the switch can set the copy-to-CPU bit for trafficthat may merit inspection. For example, encrypted traffic analytics(ETA), or another function operating on the switch, may also inspect thenew network traffic flow. Once the copied network traffic arrives at theswitch CPU, it can be processed in turn by one or more functions forinspect the series of packets from the network traffic flow. Forexample, and without imputing limitation, a switch triggered traffictracking (ST3) process can analyze the network traffic flow to determinean application response time (ART) and/or a performance monitoringmetric. ART processing can provide a view of an entire TCP networktraffic flow for the subset of traffic involved, from producer toconsumer. By inspecting these flows, application performance metrics maybe derived, such as, and as examples without imputing limitation,network latency, packet loss, and application server delay. Thesemetrics can be used when analyzing application performance end-to-end.As a result, such ART metrics can be made available by ST3 onhardware-based switch platforms as well as on software-based routers andfor a particular (and designated) subset of the network traffic flows.Likewise, performance monitoring may provide analysis and metrics forUDP-based RTP traffic flows, such as those associated with voice andvideo.

When each type of process completes analysis of a copied packet, thepackets involved can be provided to any subsequent process in turn, ifany exist. For example, when ETA is finished processing a given packetfor malware detection and analysis, the packet can in turn be providedto ST3 for application performance analysis. Various processes maycomplete respective processing of the packet(s) at different times. Forexample, ETA can be finished processing the packet(s) (of copied networktraffic) for malware detection, but ST3 may take longer to complete. Insome examples, when each process completes respective traffic analyses,a respective bit for the respective process may be modified (e.g.,flipped) to denote that the respective process no longer needs thenetwork traffic flow. When all of the software processes requiring thecopied network traffic flow have completed, then the copy-to-CPU bit inthe corresponding network flow hardware entry may be switched to an offconfiguration. As a result, coordination between various processesutilizing the copied-to-CPU network traffic flows can be achieved.Additionally, telemetry from analytic results generated by ST3 may besent to downstream processes (e.g., platforms for monitoring, assurance,etc.) as needed and upon completion of the traffic analysis by theswitch. In some examples, the analytics may be provided tovisualizations platforms for use by a network manager or assuranceplatforms, etc.

Intent-based networking is an approach for overcoming the deficiencies,discussed above and elsewhere in the present disclosure, of conventionalenterprise networks. The motivation of intent-based networking is toenable a user to describe in plain language what he or she wants toaccomplish (e.g., the user's intent) and have the network translate theuser's objective into configuration and policy changes that areautomatically propagated across a complex and heterogeneous computingenvironment. Thus, an intent-based network can abstract networkcomplexity, automate much of the work of provisioning and managing thenetwork typically handled by a network administrator, and assure secureoperation and optimal performance of the network. As an intent-basednetwork becomes aware of the users, devices, and things makingconnections in the network, it can automatically apply securitypermissions and service levels in accordance with the privileges andquality of experience (QoE) assigned to the users, devices, and things.Table 1 sets forth examples of intents and workflows that can beautomated by an intent-based network to achieve a desired outcome.

TABLE 1 Examples of Intents and Associated Workflows Intent Workflow 1need to scale out my Extend network segments; update load balancerconfiguration; application database configure quality of service (QoS) Ihave scheduled a Create high-definition (HD) video connection:prioritize with telemedicine session end-to-end QoS: validateperformance; keep the communication at 10 am safe; tear down connectionafter call I am rolling out a new IoT Create a new segment for allfactory devices to connect to the app for factory equipment IoT app:isolate from other traffic; apply service level agreement monitoring(SLA); validate SLA; optimize traffic flow I need to deploy a secureProvision multiple networks and subnets; configure access multi-tierapplication control lists (ACLs) and firewall rules; advertise routinginformation

Some additional examples of use cases of an intent-based network:

-   -   An intent-based network can learn the performance needs of        applications and services and adapt the network from end-to-end        to achieve specified service levels;    -   Instead of sending technicians to every office, floor, building,        or branch, an intent-based network can discover and identify        devices and things as they connect, assign security and        micro-segmentation profiles according to established policies,        and continuously monitor access point performance to        automatically adjust for QoE;    -   Users can move freely among network segments, mobile device in        hand, and automatically connect with the correct security and        access privileges;    -   Switches, routers, and other network devices can be powered up        by local non-technical office personnel, and the network devices        can be configured remotely (by a user or by the network) via a        cloud management console with the appropriate policies as        defined by the intents for the specific location (e.g.,        permanent employee access, visiting employee access, guest        access, etc.); and    -   Machine learning and artificial intelligence agents running in        the network can continuously monitor and analyze network traffic        and connections, compare activity against pre-defined intents        such as application performance or security policies, detect        malware intrusions in encrypted traffic and automatically        isolate infected devices, and provide a historical record of        network events for analysis and troubleshooting.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a physical topology of an enterprisenetwork 100 for providing intent-based networking. It should beunderstood that, for the enterprise network 100 and any networkdiscussed herein, there can be additional or fewer nodes, devices,links, networks, or components in similar or alternative configurations.Example embodiments with different numbers and/or types of endpoints,nodes, cloud components, servers, software components, devices, virtualor physical resources, configurations, topologies, services, appliances,or deployments are also contemplated herein. Further, the enterprisenetwork 100 can include any number or type of resources, which can beaccessed and utilized by endpoints or network devices. The illustrationsand examples provided herein are for clarity and simplicity.

In this example, the enterprise network 100 includes a management cloud102 and a network fabric 120. Although shown as an external network orcloud to the network fabric 120 in this example, the management cloud102 may alternatively or additionally reside on the premises of anorganization or in a colocation center (in addition to being hosted by acloud provider or similar environment). The management cloud 102 canprovide a central management plane for building and operating thenetwork fabric 120. The management cloud 102 can be responsible forforwarding configuration and policy distribution, as well as devicemanagement and analytics. The management cloud 102 can comprise one ormore network controller appliances 104, one or more authentication,authorization, and accounting (AAA) appliances 106, one or more wirelesslocal area network controllers (WLCs) 108, and one or more fabriccontrol plane nodes 110. In other embodiments, one or more elements ofthe management cloud 102 may be co-located with the network fabric 120.

The network controller appliance(s) 104 can function as the command andcontrol system for one or more network fabrics, and can house automatedworkflows for deploying and managing the network fabric(s). The networkcontroller appliance(s) 104 can include automation, design, policy,provisioning, and assurance capabilities, among others, as discussedfurther below with respect to FIG. 2. In some embodiments, one or moreCisco Digital Network Architecture (Cisco DNA™) appliances can operateas the network controller appliance(s) 104.

The AAA appliance(s) 106 can control access to computing resources,facilitate enforcement of network policies, audit usage, and provideinformation necessary to bill for services. The AAA appliance caninteract with the network controller appliance(s) 104 and with databasesand directories containing information for users, devices, things,policies, billing, and similar information to provide authentication,authorization, and accounting services. In some embodiments, the AAAappliance(s) 106 can utilize Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service(RADIUS) or Diameter to communicate with devices and applications. Insome embodiments, one or more Cisco® Identity Services Engine (ISE)appliances can operate as the AAA appliance(s) 106.

The WLC(s) 108 can support fabric-enabled access points attached to thenetwork fabric 120, handling traditional tasks associated with a WLC aswell as interactions with the fabric control plane for wireless endpointregistration and roaming. In some embodiments, the network fabric 120can implement a wireless deployment that moves data-plane termination(e.g., VXLAN) from a centralized location (e.g., with previous overlayControl and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) deployments)to an access point/fabric edge node. This can enable distributedforwarding and distributed policy application for wireless traffic whileretaining the benefits of centralized provisioning and administration.In some embodiments, one or more Cisco® Wireless Controllers, Cisco®Wireless LAN, and/or other Cisco DNA™-ready wireless controllers canoperate as the WLC(s) 108.

The network fabric 120 can comprise fabric border nodes 122A and 122B(collectively, 122), fabric intermediate nodes 124A-D (collectively,124), and fabric edge nodes 126A-F (collectively, 126). Although thefabric control plane node(s) 110 are shown to be external to the networkfabric 120 in this example, in other embodiments, the fabric controlplane node(s) 110 may be co-located with the network fabric 120. Inembodiments where the fabric control plane node(s) 110 are co-locatedwith the network fabric 120, the fabric control plane node(s) 110 maycomprise a dedicated node or set of nodes or the functionality of thefabric control node(s) 110 may be implemented by the fabric border nodes122.

The fabric control plane node(s) 110 can serve as a central database fortracking all users, devices, and things as they attach to the networkfabric 120, and as they roam around. The fabric control plane node(s)110 can allow network infrastructure (e.g., switches, routers, WLCs,etc.) to query the database to determine the locations of users,devices, and things attached to the fabric instead of using a flood andlearn mechanism. In this manner, the fabric control plane node(s) 110can operate as a single source of truth about where every endpointattached to the network fabric 120 is located at any point in time. Inaddition to tracking specific endpoints (e.g., /32 address for IPv4,/128 address for IPv6, etc.), the fabric control plane node(s) 110 canalso track larger summarized routers (e.g., IP/mask). This flexibilitycan help in summarization across fabric sites and improve overallscalability.

The fabric border nodes 122 can connect the network fabric 120 totraditional Layer 3 networks (e.g., non-fabric networks) or to differentfabric sites. The fabric border nodes 122 can also translate context(e.g., user, device, or thing mapping and identity) from one fabric siteto another fabric site or to a traditional network. When theencapsulation is the same across different fabric sites, the translationof fabric context is generally mapped 1:1. The fabric border nodes 122can also exchange reachability and policy information with fabriccontrol plane nodes of different fabric sites. The fabric border nodes122 also provide border functions for internal networks and externalnetworks. Internal borders can advertise a defined set of known subnets,such as those leading to a group of branch sites or to a data center.External borders, on the other hand, can advertise unknown destinations(e.g., to the Internet similar in operation to the function of a defaultroute).

The fabric intermediate nodes 124 can operate as pure Layer 3 forwardersthat connect the fabric border nodes 122 to the fabric edge nodes 126and provide the Layer 3 underlay for fabric overlay traffic.

The fabric edge nodes 126 can connect endpoints to the network fabric120 and can encapsulate/decapsulate and forward traffic from theseendpoints to and from the network fabric. The fabric edge nodes 126 mayoperate at the perimeter of the network fabric 120 and can be the firstpoints for attachment of users, devices, and things and theimplementation of policy. In some embodiments, the network fabric 120can also include fabric extended nodes (not shown) for attachingdownstream non-fabric Layer 2 network devices to the network fabric 120and thereby extend the network fabric. For example, extended nodes canbe small switches (e.g., compact switch, industrial Ethernet switch,building automation switch, etc.) which connect to the fabric edge nodesvia Layer 2. Devices or things connected to the fabric extended nodescan use the fabric edge nodes 126 for communication to outside subnets.

In this example, the network fabric can represent a single fabric sitedeployment which can be differentiated from a multi-site fabricdeployment as discussed further below with respect to FIG. 4.

In some embodiments, all subnets hosted in a fabric site can beprovisioned across every fabric edge node 126 in that fabric site. Forexample, if the subnet 10.10.10.0/24 is provisioned in a given fabricsite, this subnet may be defined across all of the fabric edge nodes 126in that fabric site, and endpoints located in that subnet can be placedon any fabric edge node 126 in that fabric. This can simplify IP addressmanagement and allow deployment of fewer but larger subnets. In someembodiments, one or more Cisco® Catalyst switches, Cisco Nexus®switches, Cisco Meraki® MS switches, Cisco® Integrated Services Routers(ISRs), Cisco® Aggregation Services Routers (ASRs), Cisco® EnterpriseNetwork Compute Systems (ENCS), Cisco® Cloud Service Virtual Routers(CSRvs), Cisco Integrated Services Virtual Routers (ISRvs), CiscoMeraki® MX appliances, and/or other Cisco DNA-Ready™ devices can operateas the fabric nodes 122, 124, and 126.

The enterprise network 100 can also include wired endpoints 130A, 130C,130D, and 130F and wireless endpoints 130B and 130E (collectively, 130).The wired endpoints 130A, 130C, 130D, and 130F can connect by wire tofabric edge nodes 126A, 126C, 126D, and 126F, respectively, and thewireless endpoints 130B and 130E can connect wirelessly to wirelessaccess points 128B and 128E (collectively, 128), respectively, which inturn can connect by wire to fabric edge nodes 126B and 126E,respectively. In some embodiments, Cisco Aironet® access points, CiscoMeraki® MR access points, and/or other Cisco DNA™-ready access pointscan operate as the wireless access points 128.

The endpoints 130 can include general purpose computing devices (e.g.,servers, workstations, desktop computers, etc.), mobile computingdevices (e.g., laptops, tablets, mobile phones, etc.), wearable devices(e.g., watches, glasses or other head-mounted displays (HMDs), eardevices, etc.), and so forth. The endpoints 130 can also includeInternet of Things (IoT) devices or equipment, such as agriculturalequipment (e.g., livestock tracking and management systems, wateringdevices, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), etc.); connected cars andother vehicles; smart home sensors and devices (e.g., alarm systems,security cameras, lighting, appliances, media players, HVAC equipment,utility meters, windows, automatic doors, door bells, locks, etc.);office equipment (e.g., desktop phones, copiers, fax machines, etc.);healthcare devices (e.g., pacemakers, biometric sensors, medicalequipment, etc.); industrial equipment (e.g., robots, factory machinery,construction equipment, industrial sensors, etc.); retail equipment(e.g., vending machines, point of sale (POS) devices, Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID) tags, etc.); smart city devices (e.g., streetlamps, parking meters, waste management sensors, etc.); transportationand logistical equipment (e.g., turnstiles, rental car trackers,navigational devices, inventory monitors, etc.); and so forth.

In some embodiments, the network fabric 120 can support wired andwireless access as part of a single integrated infrastructure such thatconnectivity, mobility, and policy enforcement behavior are similar orthe same for both wired and wireless endpoints. This can bring a unifiedexperience for users, devices, and things that is independent of theaccess media.

In integrated wired and wireless deployments, control plane integrationcan be achieved with the WLC(s) 108 notifying the fabric control planenode(s) 110 of joins, roams, and disconnects by the wireless endpoints130 such that the fabric control plane node(s) can have connectivityinformation about both wired and wireless endpoints in the networkfabric 120, and can serve as the single source of truth for endpointsconnected to the network fabric. For data plane integration, the WLC(s)108 can instruct the fabric wireless access points 128 to form a VXLANoverlay tunnel to their adjacent fabric edge nodes 126. The AP VXLANtunnel can carry segmentation and policy information to and from thefabric edge nodes 126, allowing connectivity and functionality identicalor similar to that of a wired endpoint. When the wireless endpoints 130join the network fabric 120 via the fabric wireless access points 128,the WLC(s) 108 can onboard the endpoints into the network fabric 120 andinform the fabric control plane node(s) 110 of the endpoints' MediaAccess Control (MAC) addresses. The WLC(s) 108 can then instruct thefabric wireless access points 128 to form VXLAN overlay tunnels to theadjacent fabric edge nodes 126. Next, the wireless endpoints 130 canobtain IP addresses for themselves via Dynamic Host ConfigurationProtocol (DHCP). Once that completes, the fabric edge nodes 126 canregister the IP addresses of the wireless endpoint 130 to the fabriccontrol plane node(s) 110 to form a mapping between the endpoints' MACand IP addresses, and traffic to and from the wireless endpoints 130 canbegin to flow.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a logical architecture 200 for anenterprise network (e.g., the enterprise network 100). One of ordinaryskill in the art will understand that, for the logical architecture 200and any system discussed in the present disclosure, there can beadditional or fewer component in similar or alternative configurations.The illustrations and examples provided in the present disclosure arefor conciseness and clarity. Other embodiments may include differentnumbers and/or types of elements but one of ordinary skill the art willappreciate that such variations do not depart from the scope of thepresent disclosure. In this example, the logical architecture 200includes a management layer 202, a controller layer 220, a network layer230 (such as embodied by the network fabric 120), a physical layer 240(such as embodied by the various elements of FIG. 1), and a sharedservices layer 250.

The management layer 202 can abstract the complexities and dependenciesof other layers and provide a user with tools and workflows to manage anenterprise network (e.g., the enterprise network 100). The managementlayer 202 can include a user interface 204, design functions 206, policyfunctions 208, provisioning functions 210, assurance functions 212,platform functions 214, and base automation functions 216. The userinterface 204 can provide a user a single point to manage and automatethe network. The user interface 204 can be implemented within a webapplication/web server accessible by a web browser and/or anapplication/application server accessible by a desktop application, amobile app, a shell program or other command line interface (CLI), anApplication Programming Interface (e.g., restful state transfer (REST),Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Service Oriented Architecture(SOA), etc.), and/or other suitable interface in which the user canconfigure network infrastructure, devices, and things that arecloud-managed; provide user preferences; specify policies, enter data;review statistics; configure interactions or operations; and so forth.The user interface 204 may also provide visibility information, such asviews of a network, network infrastructure, computing devices, andthings. For example, the user interface 204 can provide a view of thestatus or conditions of the network, the operations taking place,services, performance, a topology or layout, protocols implemented,running processes, errors, notifications, alerts, network structure,ongoing communications, data analysis, and so forth.

The design functions 206 can include tools and workflows for managingsite profiles, maps and floor plans, network settings, and IP addressmanagement, among others. The policy functions 208 can include tools andworkflows for defining and managing network policies. The provisioningfunctions 210 can include tools and workflows for deploying the network.The assurance functions 212 can use machine learning and analytics toprovide end-to-end visibility of the network by learning from thenetwork infrastructure, endpoints, and other contextual sources ofinformation. The platform functions 214 can include tools and workflowsfor integrating the network management system with other technologies.The base automation functions 216 can include tools and workflows tosupport the policy functions 208, the provisioning functions 210, theassurance functions 212, and the platform functions 214.

In some embodiments, the design functions 206, the policy functions 208,the provisioning functions 210, the assurance functions 212, theplatform functions 214, and the base automation functions 216 can beimplemented as microservices in which respective software functions areimplemented in multiple containers communicating with each rather thanamalgamating all tools and workflows into a single software binary. Eachof the design functions 206, policy functions 208, provisioningfunctions 210, assurance functions 212, and platform functions 214 canbe viewed as a set of related automation microservices to cover thedesign, policy authoring, provisioning, assurance, and cross-platformintegration phases of the network lifecycle. The base automationfunctions 214 can support the top-level functions by allowing users toperform certain network-wide tasks.

FIGS. 3A-3I illustrate examples of graphical user interfaces forimplementing the user interface 204. Although FIGS. 3A-3I show thegraphical user interfaces as comprising webpages displayed in a browserexecuting on a large form-factor general purpose computing device (e.g.,server, workstation, desktop, laptop, etc.), the principles disclosed inthe present disclosure are widely applicable to client devices of otherform factors, including tablet computers, smart phones, wearabledevices, or other small form-factor general purpose computing devices;televisions; set top boxes; IoT devices; and other electronic devicescapable of connecting to a network and including input/output componentsto enable a user to interact with a network management system. One ofordinary skill will also understand that the graphical user interfacesof FIGS. 3A-3I are but one example of a user interface for managing anetwork. Other embodiments may include a fewer number or a greaternumber of elements.

FIG. 3A illustrates a graphical user interface 300A, which is an exampleof a landing screen or a home screen of the user interface 204. Thegraphical user interface 300A can include user interface elements forselecting the design functions 206, the policy functions 208, theprovisioning functions 210, the assurance functions 212, and theplatform functions 214. The graphical user interface 300A also includesuser interface elements for selecting the base automation functions 216.In this example, the base automation functions 216 include:

-   -   A network discovery tool 302 for automating the discovery of        existing network elements to populate into inventory;    -   An inventory management tool 304 for managing the set of        physical and virtual network elements;    -   A topology tool 306 for visualizing the physical topology of        network elements;    -   An image repository tool 308 for managing software images for        network elements;    -   A command runner tool 310 for diagnosing one or more network        elements based on a CLI;    -   A license manager tool 312 for administering visualizing        software license usage in the network;    -   A template editor tool 314 for creating and authoring CLI        templates associated with network elements in a design profile;    -   A network PnP tool 316 for supporting the automated        configuration of network elements;    -   A telemetry tool 318 for designing a telemetry profile and        applying the telemetry profile to network elements; and    -   A data set and reports tool 320 for accessing various data sets,        scheduling data extracts, and generating reports in multiple        formats (e.g., Post Document Format (PDF), comma-separate values        (CSV), Tableau, etc.), such as an inventory data report, a        software image management (SWIM) server report, and a client        data report, among others.

FIG. 3B illustrates a graphical user interface 300B, an example of alanding screen for the design functions 206. The graphical userinterface 300B can include user interface elements for various tools andworkflows for logically defining an enterprise network. In this example,the design tools and workflows include:

-   -   A network hierarchy tool 322 for setting up the geographic        location, building, and floor plane details, and associating        these with a unique site id;    -   A network settings tool 324 for setting up network servers        (e.g., Domain Name System (DNS), DHCP, AAA, etc.), device        credentials, IP address pools, service provider profiles (e.g.,        QoS classes for a WAN provider), and wireless settings;    -   An image management tool 326 for managing software images and/or        maintenance updates, setting version compliance, and downloading        and deploying images;    -   A network profiles tool 328 for defining LAN, WAN, and WLAN        connection profiles (including Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs));        and    -   An authentication template tool 330 for defining modes of        authentication (e.g., closed authentication, Easy Connect, open        authentication, etc.).

The output of the design workflow 206 can include a hierarchical set ofunique site identifiers that define the global and forwardingconfiguration parameters of the various sites of the network. Theprovisioning functions 210 may use the site identifiers to deploy thenetwork.

FIG. 3C illustrates a graphical user interface 300C, an example of alanding screen for the policy functions 208. The graphical userinterface 300C can include various tools and workflows for definingnetwork policies. In this example, the policy design tools and workflowsinclude:

-   -   A policy dashboard 332 for viewing virtual networks, group-based        access control policies, IP-based access control policies,        traffic copy policies, scalable groups, and IP network groups.        The policy dashboard 332 can also show the number of policies        that have failed to deploy. The policy dashboard 332 can provide        a list of policies and the following information about each        policy: policy name, policy type, policy version (e.g.,        iteration of policy which can be incremented each time the        policy changes, user who has modified the policy, description,        policy scope (e.g., user and device groups or applications that        the policy affects), and timestamp;    -   A group-based access control policies tool 334 for managing        group-based access controls or SGACLs. A group-based access        control policy can define scalable groups and an access contract        (e.g., rules that make up the access control policies, such as        permit or deny when traffic matches on the policy);    -   An IP-based access control policies tool 336 for managing        IP-based access control policies. An IP-based access control can        define an IP network group (e.g., IP subnets that share same        access control requirements) and an access contract;    -   An application policies tool 338 for configuring QoS for        application traffic. An application policy can define        application sets (e.g., sets of applications that with similar        network traffic needs) and a site scope (e.g., the site to which        an application policy is defined);    -   A traffic copy policies tool 340 for setting up an Encapsulated        Remote Switched Port Analyzer (ERSPAN) configuration such that        network traffic flow between two entities is copied to a        specified destination for monitoring or troubleshooting. A        traffic copy policy can define the source and destination of the        traffic flow to copy and a traffic copy contract that specifies        the device and interface where the copy of traffic is sent; and    -   A virtual network policies tool 343 for segmenting the physical        network into multiple logical networks.

The output of the policy workflow 208 can include a set of virtualnetworks, security groups, and access and traffic policies that definethe policy configuration parameters of the various sites of the network.The provisioning functions 210 may use the virtual networks, groups, andpolicies for deployment in the network.

FIG. 3D illustrates a graphical user interface 300D, an example of alanding screen for the provisioning functions 210. The graphical userinterface 300D can include various tools and workflows for deploying thenetwork. In this example, the provisioning tools and workflows include:

-   -   A device provisioning tool 344 for assigning devices to the        inventory and deploying the required settings and policies, and        adding devices to sites; and    -   A fabric provisioning tool 346 for creating fabric domains and        adding devices to the fabric.

The output of the provisioning workflow 210 can include the deploymentof the network underlay and fabric overlay, as well as policies (definedin the policy workflow 208).

FIG. 3E illustrates a graphical user interface 300E, an example of alanding screen for the assurance functions 212. The graphical userinterface 300E can include various tools and workflows for managing thenetwork. In this example, the assurance tools and workflows include:

-   -   A health overview tool 344 for providing a global view of the        enterprise network, including network infrastructure devices and        endpoints. The user interface element (e.g., drop-down menu, a        dialog box, etc.) associated with the health overview tool 344        can also be toggled to switch to additional or alternative        views, such as a view of the health of network infrastructure        devices alone, a view of the health of all wired and wireless        clients, and a view of the health of applications running in the        network as discussed further below with respect to FIGS. 3F-3H;    -   An assurance dashboard tool 346 for managing and creating custom        dashboards;    -   An issues tool 348 for displaying and troubleshooting network        issues; and    -   A sensor management tool 350 for managing sensor-driven tests.

The graphical user interface 300E can also include a location selectionuser interface element 352, a time period selection user interfaceelement 354, and a view type user interface element 356. The locationselection user interface element 354 can enable a user to view theoverall health of specific sites (e.g., as defined via the networkhierarchy tool 322) and/or network domains (e.g., LAN, WLAN, WAN, datacenter, etc.). The time period selection user interface element 356 canenable display of the overall health of the network over specific timeperiods (e.g., last 3 hours, last 24 hours, last 7 days, custom, etc.).The view type user interface element 355 can enable a user to togglebetween a geographical map view of the sites of the network (not shown)or a hierarchical site/building view (as shown).

Within the hierarchical site/building view, rows can represent thenetwork hierarchy (e.g. sites and buildings as defined by the networkhierarchy tool 322); column 358 can indicate the number of healthyclients as a percentage; column 360 can indicate the health of wirelessclients by a score (e.g., 1-10), color and/or descriptor (e.g., red orcritical associated with a health score 1 to 3 indicating the clientshave critical issues, orange or warning associated with a health scoreof 4 to 7 indicating warnings for the clients, green or no errors orwarnings associated with a health score of 8 to 10, grey or no dataavailable associated with a health score of null or 0), or otherindicator; column 362 can indicate the health of wired clients by score,color, descriptor, and so forth; column 364 can include user interfaceelements for drilling down to the health of the clients associated witha hierarchical site/building; column 366 can indicate the number ofhealthy network infrastructure devices as a percentage; column 368 canindicate the health of access switches by score, color, descriptor, andso forth; column 370 can indicate the health of core switches by score,color, descriptor, and so forth; column 372 can indicate the health ofdistribution switches by score, color, descriptor, and so forth; column374 can indicate the health of routers by score, color, descriptor, andso forth; column 376 can indicate the health of WLCs by score, color,descriptor, and so forth; column 378 can indicate the health of othernetwork infrastructure devices by score, color, descriptor, and soforth; and column 380 can include user interface elements for drillingdown to the health of the network infrastructure devices associated witha hierarchical site/building. In other embodiments, client devices maybe grouped in other ways besides wired or wireless, such as by devicetype (e.g., desktop, laptop, mobile phone, IoT device or more specifictype of IoT device, etc.), manufacturer, model, operating system, and soforth. Likewise, network infrastructure devices can also be groupedalong these and other ways in additional embodiments.

The graphical user interface 300E can also include an overall healthsummary user interface element (e.g., a view, pane, tile, card,container, widget, dashlet, etc.) that includes a client health summaryuser interface element 384 indicating the number of healthy clients as apercentage, a color coded trend chart 386 indicating that percentageover a specific time period (e.g., as selected by the time periodselection user interface element 354), a user interface element 388breaking down the number of healthy clients as a percentage by clienttype (e.g., wireless, wired), a network infrastructure health summaryuser interface element 390 indicating the number of health networkinfrastructure devices as a percentage, a color coded trend chart 392indicating that percentage over a specific time period, and a userinterface element 394 breaking down the number of network infrastructuredevices as a percentage by network infrastructure device type (e.g.,core switch, access switch, distribution switch, etc.).

The graphical user interface 300E can also include an issues userinterface element 396 listing issues, if any, that must be addressed.Issues can be sorted based on timestamp, severity, location, devicetype, and so forth. Each issue may be selected to drill down to view amore detailed view of the selected issue.

FIG. 3F illustrates a graphical user interface 300F, an example of ascreen for an overview of the health of network infrastructure devicesalone, which may be navigated to, for instance, by toggling the healthoverview tool 344. The graphical user interface 300F can include atimeline slider 398 for selecting a more granular time range than a timeperiod selection user interface element (e.g., the time period selectionuser interface element 354). The graphical user interface 300F can alsoinclude similar information to that shown in the graphical userinterface 300E, such as a user interface element comprising ahierarchical site/building view and/or geographical map view similar tothat of the graphical user interface 300E (except providing informationonly for network infrastructure devices) (not shown here), the number ofhealthy network infrastructure devices as a percentage 390, the colorcoded trend charts 392 indicating that percentage by device type, thebreakdown of the number of healthy network infrastructure devices bydevice type 394, and so forth. In addition, the graphical user interface300F can display a view of the health of network infrastructure devicesby network topology (not shown). This view can be interactive, such asby enabling a user to zoom in or out, pan left or right, or rotate thetopology (e.g., by 90 degrees).

In this example, the graphical user interface 300F also includes a colorcoded trend chart 3002 showing the performance of the networkinfrastructure devices over a specific time period; network health bydevice type tabs including a system health chart 3004 providing systemmonitoring metrics (e.g., CPU utilization, memory utilization,temperature, etc.), a data plane connectivity chart 3006 providing dataplane metrics, such as uplink availability and link errors, and acontrol plane connectivity chart 3008 providing control plane metricsfor each device type; an AP analytics user interface element includingan up and down color coded chart 3010 that provides AP statusinformation (e.g., the number of APs connected to the network, and thenumber of APs not connected to the network, etc.) and a top number N ofAPs by client count chart 3012 that provides information about the APsthat have the highest number of clients; a network devices table 3014enabling a user to filter (e.g., by device type, health, or customfilters), view, and export network device information. A detailed viewof the health of each network infrastructure device can also be providedby selecting that network infrastructure device in the network devicestable 3014.

FIG. 3G illustrates a graphical user interface 300G, an example of ascreen for an overview of the health of client devices, which may benavigated to, for instance, by toggling the health overview tool 344.The graphical user interface 300G can include an SSID user interfaceselection element 3016 for viewing the health of wireless clients by allSSIDs or a specific SSID, a band frequency user interface selectionelement 3018 for viewing the health of wireless clients by all bandfrequencies or a specific band frequency (e.g., 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, etc.),and a time slider 3020 that may operate similarly to the time slider398.

The graphical user interface 300G can also include a client healthsummary user interface element that provides similar information to thatshown in the graphical user interface 300E, such as the number ofhealthy clients as a percentage 384 and a color coded trend chart 386indicating that percentage over a specific time period for each groupingof client devices (e.g., wired/wireless, device type, manufacturer,model, operating system, etc.). In addition, the client health summaryuser interface element can include a color-coded donut chart thatprovides a count of poor (e.g., red and indicating a client health scoreof 1 to 3), fair (e.g., orange and indicating a client health score of 4to 7), good (e.g., green and indicating a health score of 8 to 10), andinactive (e.g., grey and indicating a health score that is null or 0)client devices. The count of client devices associated with each color,health score, health descriptor, and so forth may be displayed by aselection gesture directed toward that color (e.g., tap, double tap,long press, hover, click, right-click, etc.).

The graphical user interface 300G can also include a number of otherclient health metric charts in all sites or a selected site over aspecific time period, such as:

-   -   Client onboarding times 3024;    -   Received Signal Strength Indications (RSSIs) 3026;    -   Connectivity signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) 3028;    -   Client counts per SSID 3030;    -   Client counts per band frequency 3032;    -   DNS requests and response counters (not shown); and    -   Connectivity physical link state information 3034 indicating the        distribution of wired client devices that had their physical        links up, down, and had errors.

In addition, the graphical user interface 300G can include a clientdevices table 3036 enabling a user to filter (e.g., by device type,health, data (e.g., onboarding time>threshold, associationtime>threshold, DHCP>threshold, AAA>threshold, RSSI>threshold, etc.), orcustom filters), view, and export client device information (e.g., useridentifier, hostname, MAC address, IP address, device type, last heard,location, VLAN identifier, SSID, overall health score, onboarding score,connection score, network infrastructure device to which the clientdevice is connected, etc.). A detailed view of the health of each clientdevice can also be provided by selecting that client device in theclient devices table 3036.

FIG. 3H illustrates a graphical user interface 300H, an example of ascreen for an overview of the health of applications, which may benavigated to, for instance, by the toggling the health overview tool344. The graphical user interface 300H can include application healthsummary user interface element including a percentage 3038 of the numberof healthy applications as a percentage, a health score 3040 for eachapplication or type of application (e.g., business relevant, businessirrelevant, default; HTTP, VoIP, chat, email, bulk transfer,multimedia/streaming, etc.) running in the network, a top number N ofapplications by usage chart 3042. The health score 3040 can becalculated based on an application's qualitative metrics, such as packetloss, network latency, and so forth.

In addition, the graphical user interface 300H can also include anapplications table 3044 enabling a user to filter (e.g., by applicationname, domain name, health, usage, average throughput, traffic class,packet loss, network latency, application latency, custom filters,etc.), view, and export application information. A detailed view of thehealth of each application can also be provided by selecting thatapplication in the applications table 3044.

FIG. 3I illustrates an example of a graphical user interface 300I, anexample of a landing screen for the platform functions 210. Thegraphical user interface 300C can include various tools and workflowsfor integrating with other technology systems. In this example, theplatform integration tools and workflows include:

-   -   A bundles tool 3046 for managing packages of domain-specific        APIs, workflows, and other features for network programming and        platform integration;    -   A developer toolkit 3048 for accessing an API catalog listing        the available APIs and methods (e.g., GET, PUT, POST, DELETE,        etc.), descriptions, runtime parameters, return codes, model        schemas, and so forth. In some embodiments, the developer        toolkit 3048 can also include a “Try It” button to permit a        developer to experiment with a particular API to better        understand its behavior;    -   A runtime dashboard 3050 for viewing and analyzing basic metrics        or API and integration flow usage;    -   A platform settings tool 3052 to view and set global or        bundle-specific settings that define integration destinations        and event consumption preferences; and    -   A notifications user interface element 3054 for presenting        notifications regarding the availability of software updates,        security threats, and so forth.

Returning to FIG. 2, the controller layer 220 can comprise subsystemsfor the management layer 220 and may include a network control platform222, a network data platform 224, and AAA services 226. These controllersubsystems can form an abstraction layer to hide the complexities anddependencies of managing many network elements and protocols.

The network control platform 222 can provide automation andorchestration services for the network layer 230 and the physical layer240, and can include the settings, protocols, and tables to automatemanagement of the network and physical layers. For example, the networkcontrol platform 230 can provide the design functions 206, theprovisioning functions 208 212. In addition, the network controlplatform 230 can include tools and workflows for discovering switches,routers, wireless controllers, and other network infrastructure devices(e.g., the network discovery tool 302); maintaining network and endpointdetails, configurations, and software versions (e.g., the inventorymanagement tool 304); Plug-and-Play (PnP) for automating deployment ofnetwork infrastructure (e.g., the network PnP tool 316), Path Trace forcreating visual data paths to accelerate the troubleshooting ofconnectivity problems, Easy QoS for automating quality of service toprioritize applications across the network, and Enterprise ServiceAutomation (ESA) for automating deployment of physical and virtualnetwork services, among others. The network control platform 222 cancommunicate with network elements using Network Configuration(NETCONF)/Yet Another Next Generation (YANG), Simple Network ManagementProtocol (SNMP), Secure Shell (SSH)/Telnet, and so forth. In someembodiments, the Cisco® Network Control Platform (NCP) can operate asthe network control platform 222

The network data platform 224 can provide for network data collection,analytics, and assurance, and may include the settings, protocols, andtables to monitor and analyze network infrastructure and endpointsconnected to the network. The network data platform 224 can collectmultiple types of information from network infrastructure devices,including syslog, SNMP, NetFlow, Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN), andstreaming telemetry, among others. The network data platform 224 canalso collect use contextual information shared from

In some embodiments, one or more Cisco DNA™ Center appliances canprovide the functionalities of the management layer 210, the networkcontrol platform 222, and the network data platform 224. The Cisco DNA™Center appliances can support horizontal scalability by addingadditional Cisco DNA™ Center nodes to an existing cluster; highavailability for both hardware components and software packages; backupand store mechanisms to support disaster discovery scenarios; role-basedaccess control mechanisms for differentiated access to users, devices,and things based on roles and scope; and programmable interfaces toenable integration with third party vendors. The Cisco DNA™ Centerappliances can also be cloud-tethered to provide for the upgrade ofexisting functions and additions of new packages and applicationswithout having to manually download and install them.

The AAA services 226 can provide identity and policy services for thenetwork layer 230 and physical layer 240, and may include the settings,protocols, and tables to support endpoint identification and policyenforcement services. The AAA services 226 can provide tools andworkflows to manage virtual networks and security groups, and to creategroup-based policies and contracts. The AAA services 226 can identifyand profile network infrastructure devices and endpoints usingAAA/RADIUS, 802.1X, MAC Authentication Bypass (MAB), web authentication,and EasyConnect, among others. The AAA services 226 can also collect anduse contextual information from the network control platform 222, thenetwork data platform 224, and the shared services 250, among others. Insome embodiments, Cisco® ISE can provide the AAA services 226.

The network layer 230 can be conceptualized as a composition of twolayers, an underlay 234 comprising physical and virtual networkinfrastructure (e.g., routers, switches, WLCs, etc.) and a Layer 3routing protocol for forwarding traffic, and an overlay 232 comprising avirtual topology for logically connecting wired and wireless users,devices, and things and applying services and policies to theseentities. Network elements of the underlay 234 can establishconnectivity between each other, such as via Internet Protocol (IP). Theunderlay may use any topology and routing protocol.

In some embodiments, the network controller 104 can provide a local areanetwork (LAN) automation service, such as implemented by Cisco DNA™Center LAN Automation, to automatically discover, provision, and deploynetwork devices. Once discovered, the automated underlay provisioningservice can leverage Plug and Play (PnP) to apply the required protocoland network address configurations to the physical networkinfrastructure. In some embodiments, the LAN automation service mayimplement the Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS)protocol. Some of the advantages of IS-IS include neighbor establishmentwithout IP protocol dependencies, peering capability using loopbackaddresses, and agnostic treatment of IPv4, IPv6, and non-IP traffic.

The overlay 232 can be a logical, virtualized topology built on top ofthe physical underlay 234, and can include a fabric data plane, a fabriccontrol plane, and a fabric policy plane. In some embodiments, thefabric data plane can be created via packet encapsulation using VirtualExtensible LAN (VXLAN) with Group Policy Option (GPO). Some of theadvantages of VXLAN-GPO include its support for both Layer 2 and Layer 3virtual topologies (overlays), and its ability to operate over any IPnetwork with built-in network segmentation.

In some embodiments, the fabric control plane can implement Locator/IDSeparation Protocol (LISP) for logically mapping and resolving users,devices, and things. LISP can simplify routing by removing the need foreach router to process every possible IP destination address and route.LISP can achieve this by moving remote destination to a centralized mapdatabase that allows each router to manage only its local routs andquery the map system to locate destination endpoints.

The fabric policy plane is where intent can be translated into networkpolicy. That is, the policy plane is where the network operator caninstantiate logical network policy based on services offered by thenetwork fabric 120, such as security segmentation services, quality ofservice (QoS), capture/copy services, application visibility services,and so forth.

Segmentation is a method or technology used to separate specific groupsof users or devices from other groups for the purpose of reducingcongestion, improving security, containing network problems, controllingaccess, and so forth. As discussed, the fabric data plane can implementVXLAN encapsulation to provide network segmentation by using the virtualnetwork identifier (VNI) and Scalable Group Tag (SGT) fields in packetheaders. The network fabric 120 can support both macro-segmentation andmicro-segmentation. Macro-segmentation logically separates a networktopology into smaller virtual networks by using a unique networkidentifier and separate forwarding tables. This can be instantiated as avirtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instance and referred to as avirtual network (VN). That is, a VN is a logical network instance withinthe network fabric 120 defined by a Layer 3 routing domain and canprovide both Layer 2 and Layer 3 services (using the VXLAN VNI toprovide both Layer 2 and Layer 3 segmentation). Micro-segmentationlogically separates user or device groups within a VN, by enforcingsource to destination access control permissions, such as by usingaccess control lists (ACLs). A scalable group is a logical objectidentifier assigned to a group of users, devices, or things in thenetwork fabric 120. It can be used as source and destination classifiersin Scalable Group ACLs (SGACLs). The SGT can be used to provideaddress-agnostic group-based policies.

In some embodiments, the fabric control plane node 110 may implement theLocator/Identifier Separation Protocol (LISP) to communicate with oneanother and with the management cloud 102. Thus, the control plane nodesmay operate a host tracking database, a map server, and a map resolver.The host tracking database can track the endpoints 130 connected to thenetwork fabric 120 and associate the endpoints to the fabric edge nodes126, thereby decoupling an endpoint's identifier (e.g., IP or MACaddress) from its location (e.g., closest router) in the network.

The physical layer 240 can comprise network infrastructure devices, suchas switches and routers 110, 122, 124, and 126 and wireless elements 108and 128 and network appliances, such as the network controllerappliance(s) 104, and the AAA appliance(s) 106.

The shared services layer 250 can provide an interface to externalnetwork services, such as cloud services 252; Domain Name System (DNS),DHCP, IP Address Management (IPAM), and other network address managementservices 254; firewall services 256; Network as a Sensor(Naas)/Encrypted Threat Analytics (ETA) services; and Virtual NetworkFunctions (VNFs) 260; among others. The management layer 202 and/or thecontroller layer 220 can share identity, policy, forwarding information,and so forth via the shared services layer 250 using APIs.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a physical topology for a multi-siteenterprise network 400. In this example, the network fabric comprisesfabric sites 420A and 420B. The fabric site 420A can include a fabriccontrol node 410A, fabric border nodes 422A and 422B, fabricintermediate nodes 424A and 424B (shown here in dashed line and notconnected to the fabric border nodes or the fabric edge nodes forsimplicity), and fabric edge nodes 426A-D. The fabric site 420B caninclude a fabric control node 410B, fabric border nodes 422C-E, fabricintermediate nodes 424C and 424D, and fabric edge nodes 426D-F. Multiplefabric sites corresponding to a single fabric, such as the networkfabric of FIG. 4, can be interconnected by a transit network. A transitnetwork can be a portion of a network fabric that has its own controlplane nodes and border nodes but does not have edge nodes. In addition,a transit network shares at least one border node with each fabric sitethat it interconnects.

In general, a transit network connects a network fabric to the externalworld. There are several approaches to external connectivity, such as atraditional IP network 436, traditional WAN 438A, Software-Defined WAN(SD-WAN) (not shown), or Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) 438B.Traffic across fabric sites, and to other types of sites, can use thecontrol plane and data plane of the transit network to provideconnectivity between these sites. A local border node can operate as thehandoff point from the fabric site, and the transit network can delivertraffic to other sites. The transit network may use additional features.For example, if the transit network is a WAN, then features likeperformance routing may also be used. To provide end-to-end policy andsegmentation, the transit network should be cable of carrying endpointcontext information (e.g., VRF, SGT) across the network. Otherwise, are-classification of the traffic may be needed at the destination siteborder.

The local control plane in a fabric site may only hold state relevant toendpoints that are connected to edge nodes within the local fabric site.The local control plane can register local endpoints via local edgenodes, as with a single fabric site (e.g., the network fabric 120). Anendpoint that isn't explicitly registered with the local control planemay be assumed to be reachable via border nodes connected to the transitnetwork. In some embodiments, the local control plane may not hold statefor endpoints attached to other fabric sites such that the border nodesdo not register information from the transit network. In this manner,the local control plane can be independent of other fabric sites, thusenhancing overall scalability of the network.

The control plane in the transit network can hold summary state for allfabric sites that it interconnects. This information can be registeredto the transit control plane by border from different fabric sites. Theborder nodes can register EID information from the local fabric siteinto the transit network control plane for summary EIDs only and thusfurther improve scalability.

The multi-site enterprise network 400 can also include a shared servicescloud 432. The shared services cloud 432 can comprise one or morenetwork controller appliances 404, one or more AAA appliances 406, andother shared servers (e.g., DNS; DHCP; IPAM; SNMP and other monitoringtools; NetFlow, syslog, and other data collectors, etc.) may reside.These shared services can generally reside outside of the network fabricand in a global routing table (GRT) of an existing network. In thiscase, some method of inter-VRF routing may be required. One option forinter-VRF routing is to use a fusion router, which can be an externalrouter that performs inter-VRF leaking (e.g., import/export of VRFroutes) to fuse the VRFs together. Multi-Protocol can be used for thisroute exchange since it can inherently prevent routing loops (e.g.,using the AS_PATH attribute). Other routing protocols can also be usedbut may require complex distribute-lists and prefix-lists to preventloops.

However, there can be several disadvantages in using a fusion router toachieve inter-VN communication, such as route duplication because routesleaked from one VRF to another are programmed in hardware tables and canresult in more TCAM utilization, manual configuration at multiple touchpoints wherever route-leaking is implemented, loss of SGT contextbecause SGTs may not be maintained across VRFs and must be re-classifiedonce the traffic enters the other VRF, and traffic hairpinning becausetraffic may need to be routed to the fusion router, and then back to thefabric border node.

SD-Access Extranet can provide a flexible and scalable method forachieving inter-VN communications by avoiding route duplication becauseinter-VN lookup occurs in the fabric control plane (e.g., software) suchthat route entries do not need to be duplicated in hardware; providing asingle touchpoint because the network management system (e.g., CiscoDNA™ Center) can automate the inter-VN lookup policy, making it a singlepoint of management; maintaining SGT context because the inter-VN lookupoccurs in the control plane node(s) (e.g., software), and avoidshair-pinning because inter-VN forwarding can occur at the fabric edge(e.g., the same intra-VN) so traffic does not need to hairpin at theborder node. Another advantage is that a separate VN can be made foreach of the common resources that are needed (e.g., a Shared ServicesVN, an Internet VN, a data center VN, etc.).

FIG. 5A illustrates a system 500 for performing switch triggered trafficanalysis. Network traffic flowing between a user 501 and a server 503may be designated by a network administrator as undergoing analytics andprocessing on a switch 504. As the network traffic traverses a dataplane 502 (e.g., private network, etc.), switch 504 receives and copiespackets of the network traffic flow to a memory local to switch 504 andaccessible by a local processing device. Both copied and uncopiednetwork traffic flow may otherwise proceed to a destination (e.g., fromuser 501 to server 503).

The copied packets may be processed by functions and processes of acontrol plane 506. In some examples, portions of control plane 506 maybe stored locally on switch 504 (or other hardware within data plane502). In other examples, the functions and processes of control plane506 may be stored entirely elsewhere (e.g., at a remote server,distributed within a service mesh, etc.).

Nevertheless, control plane 506 may include a packet processing service507 for processing packets received from switch 504 to produceanalytics, etc. Packet processing service 507 may include a networkbased application recognition (NBAR2) process 508 for performingapplication specific processing, an encrypted traffic analytics (ETA)process 509 for performing traffic specific processing (e.g., malwaredetection, spam detection, etc.), a switch triggered traffic tracking(ST3) process 510 for performing network traffic flow analytics, and aflow metrics process 512 for generating network traffic flow metrics.Here, packet processing 507 provides may, based on analyses selected by,for example, a network administrator, packets to NBAR2 process 508, thento ETA process 509, then to ST3 process 510, and finally to flow metricsprocess 512. In some cases, some or none of processes 508-512 mayrequire packets from a network traffic data flow and so may be skippedin processing packet data. Additionally, ST3 process 510 may include atraffic sampler 511 for determining whether or not to process particularpackets. For example, traffic sampler 511 may be set (e.g., by thenetwork administrator) to only sample one out of every 10, 100, 1000,etc. packets from a network traffic flow and so may indicate that ST3process 510 is to be skipped in packet processing service 507 flows.

Analytics from packet processing service 507 may be provided todownstream services and processes outside of control plane 506. Here,for example, outputs are provided to an assurance platform 505.Assurance platform 505 may aggregate analytics from one or more packetprocessing services 507 or control planes 506 to generating reports fora network administrator, etc.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram of a switch 520 which may be used to copyinteresting traffic (e.g., as discussed above) to a processing device,such as a CPU, for processing. In some examples, switch 520 may besubstantially similar to switch 504 discussed above. Switch 520 may belocated within a data plane (e.g., data plane 502) and receive networktraffic traversing the data plane from a source (e.g., a user clientdevice, etc.) and to a destination (e.g., a server, other user clientdevice, etc.).

Switch 520 includes a network flow records store 522. Here, network flowrecords store 522 is depicted as a table; however, it is understood thatnetwork flow records store 522 may be a dictionary, non-relationaldatabase, unstructured data store, or any other storage scheme. Networkflow records store 522 includes records 530-531 associated with a source525, a destination 526, and one or more bitflags 527. For example,source 525 and/or destination 526 may be associated with a user device501 or a server 503 discussed above in reference to FIG. 5A. Bitflags527 include a sequence of bits (e.g., Boolean (1 or 0) valued datastructures) that denote whether an associated process (e.g., NBAR2process 508, ETA process 509, ART process 510, etc.) requires packetsfrom network traffic flow associated with a respective entry (e.g., userdevice 501 as source 525 and server 503 as destination 526, etc.). Aparticular bitflag, such as the first in the sequence for example, maybe a copy-to-CPU bit and inform switch ASIC 520 whether to copy arespective packet to a CPU accessible traffic cache 523 for processingand analytics. In some examples, a logical OR operation can be appliedto all other bits (e.g., besides the copy-to-CPU bit) within bitflags528 or 529 to set the copy-to-CPU bit. In effect, where all other bitsare valued at 0, the copy-to-CPU bit will be set to 0, where any or allother bits are set to 1 and so packets will be copied to traffic cache523 when any bit indicates an associated process requires packets toprocess. Further, only the copy-to-CPU bit need be checked rather thanevery bit within bitflags 528-529 and so traffic need not be slowed downby additional computations.

Switch 520 includes a CPU 521 to perform processing on packets copied totraffic cache 523. In addition, CPU 521 may provide copied packets orprocess output (e.g., from processing copied packets) to services incontrol plane 506 via a control plane interface 524.

FIG. 5C depicts a method 540 for processing network traffic at a switch.For example, network traffic may be received by a switch and processedaccording to method 540 to generate telemetry, analytics, and other datafor an assurance platform, network administrator, downstream services,etc.

At step 541, the switch receives network traffic from a client device.The client device may be any endpoint in a network such as a computer,mobile device (e.g., smartphone, tablet, etc.), server, networkconnected device, etc.

At step 542, a network flow record is generated. The network flow recordmay include a copy-to-CPU bit and indicate a traffic flow from theclient device and to a receiving destination (e.g., a source and adestination) which is to be copied to a CPU accessible memory, such as atraffic cache. The copy-to-CPU bit may be set to a default state atrecord generation (e.g., into an off position, or to 0, until atroubleshooting event occurs, etc.).

At step 543, packets from network traffic flow indicated by the networktraffic flow record are copied the traffic cache for forwarding to atraffic flow monitoring service. For example, the traffic flowmonitoring service may be onboard the switch, a downstream process(e.g., within a network control plane), or a spread across both.

At step 544, traffic and packet analysis is performed on the forwardedpackets. In some examples, analytics, telemetry data, and other data maybe produced by the traffic and packet analysis. In some examples, thetraffic and packet analysis may initiate additional downstream processes(e.g., automated repair and/or reporting services, etc.). In cases whereone or more processes need multiple packets for performing traffic andpacket analysis, steps 543-544 may loop through additional sequentialpackets until no more packets are needed by processes, etc.

At step 545, the copy-to-CPU bit is set to an inactive position (e.g.,0). In some examples, a logical OR operation may be performed on otherbits within a series of bits from the network flow record indicatingwhether associated processes require additional packets. Where no moreadditional packets are required by processes, the associated bits may beset to 0 and the logical OR operation may return a 0 value (to which thecopy-to-CPU bit may be set).

At step 546, results of the traffic and packet analysis may betransmitted to an assurance platform. The assurance platform may performadditional processing of the results such as visualizations, logging,reporting, etc.

FIG. 5D depicts a method 550 that may be performed alongside or insteadof steps 544-546 above and by, for example, ST3 process 510. Inparticular, method 550 may be performed over a series of processes in anetwork control plane (e.g., control plane 506, etc.) for monitoring andmanaging network traffic flows.

At step 551, client device network traffic is received from a controlplane service. In some examples, the control plane service may be anupstream process or processes such as, for example, NBAR2 process 508and/or ETA process 509 discussed above.

At step 552, packets are identified that conform to a flow samplingrate. For example, a traffic sampler 511 may include a sample ratedenoting a certain proportion of packets to sample from a particularnetwork traffic flow. Packets can be checked against a count todetermine whether to process throughout method 550.

At step 553, flow metrics are generated from the identified packets bydetermined various network characteristics. The network characteristicsmay include, for example and without imputing limitation, server networkdelay (SND), client network delay (CND), application delay (AD),application response time (ART), and total transaction time (TT).

At step 554, whether additional packets are needed for generating flowmetrics may be determined. For example, SND, CND, AD, ART, and TT mayrequire multiple packets in sequence to determine flow metrics. In someexamples, flow metrics may require additional packets until a thresholdvalue within a packet is received (e.g., an acknowledgement, successupdate, etc.). Where additional packets are needed, method 550 may loopback to step 552.

At step 555, a logical OR operation on process bitflags can be performedto flip a copy-to-CPU bit into an inactive configuration (e.g., to 0).With the copy-to-CPU bit in an inactive configuration, an associatedswitch may cease copying respective packets of network traffic flow to amemory.

At step 556, the flow metrics are transmitted to an assurance platform.The assurance platform may perform additional processing of the resultssuch as generating visualizations, logging, reporting, etc.

FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B illustrate systems in accordance with variousembodiments. The more appropriate system will be apparent to those ofordinary skill in the art when practicing the various embodiments.Persons of ordinary skill in the art will also readily appreciate thatother systems are possible.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example of a bus computing system 600 wherein thecomponents of the system are in electrical communication with each otherusing a bus 605. The computing system 600 can include a processing unit(CPU or processor) 610 and a system bus 605 that may couple varioussystem components including the system memory 615, such as read onlymemory (ROM) 620 and random access memory (RAM) 625, to the processor610. The computing system 600 can include a cache 612 of high-speedmemory connected directly with, in close proximity to, or integrated aspart of the processor 610. The computing system 600 can copy data fromthe memory 615, ROM 620, RAM 625, and/or storage device 630 to the cache612 for quick access by the processor 610. In this way, the cache 612can provide a performance boost that avoids processor delays whilewaiting for data. These and other modules can control the processor 610to perform various actions. Other system memory 615 may be available foruse as well. The memory 615 can include multiple different types ofmemory with different performance characteristics. The processor 610 caninclude any general purpose processor and a hardware module or softwaremodule, such as module 1 632, module 2 634, and module 3 636 stored inthe storage device 630, configured to control the processor 610 as wellas a special-purpose processor where software instructions areincorporated into the actual processor design. The processor 610 mayessentially be a completely self-contained computing system, containingmultiple cores or processors, a bus, memory controller, cache, etc. Amulti-core processor may be symmetric or asymmetric.

To enable user interaction with the computing system 600, an inputdevice 645 can represent any number of input mechanisms, such as amicrophone for speech, a touch-protected screen for gesture or graphicalinput, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech and so forth. An outputdevice 635 can also be one or more of a number of output mechanismsknown to those of skill in the art. In some instances, multimodalsystems can enable a user to provide multiple types of input tocommunicate with the computing system 600. The communications interface640 can govern and manage the user input and system output. There may beno restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrangement andtherefore the basic features here may easily be substituted for improvedhardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.

The storage device 630 can be a non-volatile memory and can be a harddisk or other types of computer readable media which can store data thatare accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memorycards, solid state memory devices, digital versatile disks, cartridges,random access memory, read only memory, and hybrids thereof.

As discussed above, the storage device 630 can include the softwaremodules 632, 634, 636 for controlling the processor 610. Other hardwareor software modules are contemplated. The storage device 630 can beconnected to the system bus 605. In some embodiments, a hardware modulethat performs a particular function can include a software componentstored in a computer-readable medium in connection with the necessaryhardware components, such as the processor 610, bus 605, output device635, and so forth, to carry out the function.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example architecture for a chipset computingsystem 650 that can be used in accordance with an embodiment. Thecomputing system 650 can include a processor 655, representative of anynumber of physically and/or logically distinct resources capable ofexecuting software, firmware, and hardware configured to performidentified computations. The processor 655 can communicate with achipset 660 that can control input to and output from the processor 655.In this example, the chipset 660 can output information to an outputdevice 665, such as a display, and can read and write information tostorage device 670, which can include magnetic media, solid state media,and other suitable storage media. The chipset 660 can also read datafrom and write data to RAM 675. A bridge 680 for interfacing with avariety of user interface components 685 can be provided for interfacingwith the chipset 660. The user interface components 685 can include akeyboard, a microphone, touch detection and processing circuitry, apointing device, such as a mouse, and so on. Inputs to the computingsystem 650 can come from any of a variety of sources, machine generatedand/or human generated.

The chipset 660 can also interface with one or more communicationinterfaces 690 that can have different physical interfaces. Thecommunication interfaces 690 can include interfaces for wired andwireless LANs, for broadband wireless networks, as well as personal areanetworks. Some applications of the methods for generating, displaying,and using the technology disclosed herein can include receiving ordereddatasets over the physical interface or be generated by the machineitself by the processor 655 analyzing data stored in the storage device670 or the RAM 675. Further, the computing system 650 can receive inputsfrom a user via the user interface components 685 and executeappropriate functions, such as browsing functions by interpreting theseinputs using the processor 655.

It will be appreciated that computing systems 600 and 650 can have morethan one processor 610 and 655, respectively, or be part of a group orcluster of computing devices networked together to provide greaterprocessing capability.

For clarity of explanation, in some instances the various embodimentsmay be presented as including individual functional blocks includingfunctional blocks comprising devices, device components, steps orroutines in a method embodied in software, or combinations of hardwareand software.

In some embodiments the computer-readable storage devices, mediums, andmemories can include a cable or wireless signal containing a bit streamand the like. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readablestorage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals,electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

Methods according to the above-described examples can be implementedusing computer-executable instructions that are stored or otherwiseavailable from computer readable media. Such instructions can comprise,for example, instructions and data which cause or otherwise configure ageneral purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purposeprocessing device to perform a certain function or group of functions.Portions of computer resources used can be accessible over a network.The computer executable instructions may be, for example, binaries,intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, orsource code. Examples of computer-readable media that may be used tostore instructions, information used, and/or information created duringmethods according to described examples include magnetic or opticaldisks, flash memory, USB devices provided with non-volatile memory,networked storage devices, and so on.

Devices implementing methods according to these disclosures can comprisehardware, firmware and/or software, and can take any of a variety ofform factors. Some examples of such form factors include general purposecomputing devices such as servers, rack mount devices, desktopcomputers, laptop computers, and so on, or general purpose mobilecomputing devices, such as tablet computers, smart phones, personaldigital assistants, wearable devices, and so on. Functionality describedherein also can be embodied in peripherals or add-in cards. Suchfunctionality can also be implemented on a circuit board among differentchips or different processes executing in a single device, by way offurther example.

The instructions, media for conveying such instructions, computingresources for executing them, and other structures for supporting suchcomputing resources are means for providing the functions described inthese disclosures.

Examples are provided herein to enhance understanding of the disclosure.A specific set of statements are provided as follows:

Statement 1: A computer-implemented method includes receiving networktraffic including one or more packets, generating a network traffic flowrecord associated with the received network traffic, the network trafficflow record including a copy-to-CPU bit and one or more function flagbits, setting the copy-to-CPU bit to an on configuration, processing theone or more packets by one or more functions to generate network flowanalytics, wherein the one or more function flag bits are set inresponse to the one or more functions generating network flow analytics,and setting the copy-to-CPU bit to an off configuration.

Statement 2: A method according to Statement 1 further includes copyingthe one or more packets to a hardware memory based on the copy-to-CPUbit.

Statement 3: A method according to any of the preceding Statementsfurther includes providing the network flow analytics to one or moreassurance platforms.

Statement 4: A method according to any of the preceding Statements,wherein the copy-to-CPU bit is set to an off configuration in responseto respective configurations of the one or more function flag bits,further includes setting the one or more function flag bits to an offconfiguration in response to processing the copied one or more packets.

Statement 5: A method according to Statement 4 further includesperforming a logical OR operation on the one or more function flag bitsto set the copy-to-CPU bit to an off configuration.

Statement 6: A method according to any of the preceding Statementsincludes processing the one or more packets being performed in a controlplane of a network.

Statement 7: A method according to any of the preceding Statementsincludes the network traffic being received by a switch and the switchgenerating the network traffic flow record and processes the one or morepackets.

Statement 8: A system includes a switch having one or more processors,the switch configured to receive and transmit packets across a network,and a memory storing instructions for the one or more processors toreceive network traffic including one or more packets, generate anetwork traffic flow record associated with the received networktraffic, the network traffic flow record including a copy-to-CPU bit andone or more function flag bits, set the copy-to-CPU bit to an onconfiguration, process the one or more packets by one or more functionsto generate network flow analytics, wherein the one or more functionflag bits are set in response to the one or more functions generatingnetwork flow analytics, and set the copy-to-CPU bit to an offconfiguration.

Statement 14: A non-transitory computer readable medium includesinstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause theone or more processors to receive network traffic including one or morepackets, generate a network traffic flow record associated with thereceived network traffic, the network traffic flow record including acopy-to-CPU bit and one or more function flag bits, set the copy-to-CPUbit to an on configuration, processing the one or more packets by one ormore functions to generate network flow analytics, wherein the one ormore function flag bits are set in response to the one or more functionsgenerating network flow analytics, and set the copy-to-CPU bit to an offconfiguration.

Although a variety of examples and other information was used to explainaspects within the scope of the appended claims, no limitation of theclaims should be implied based on particular features or arrangements insuch examples, as one of ordinary skill would be able to use theseexamples to derive a wide variety of implementations. Further andalthough some subject matter may have been described in languagespecific to examples of structural features and/or method steps, it isto be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claimsis not necessarily limited to these described features or acts. Forexample, such functionality can be distributed differently or performedin components other than those identified herein. Rather, the describedfeatures and steps are disclosed as examples of components of systemsand methods within the scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving network traffic; generating a network traffic flow recordassociated with the received network traffic, the network traffic flowrecord including a copy-to-CPU bit and function flag bits, wherein oneor more of the function flag bits are in an on configuration; settingthe copy-to-CPU bit to an on configuration; in response to thecopy-to-CPU bit being set to an on configuration, copy one or morepackets of the network traffic of the network traffic flow to a cacheaccessible by a processor; processing the one or more copied packets byone or more functions, based on the one or more function flag bits inthe on configuration, to generate network flow analytics; in response tothe one or more functions generating network flow analytics, setting theone or more function flag bits to an off configuration; and setting thecopy-to-CPU bit to an off configuration.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising providing the network flow analytics to one or moreassurance platforms.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the copy-to-CPUbit is set to an off configuration in response to respectiveconfigurations of the one or more function flag bits, and the methodfurther comprising setting the one or more function flag bits to an offconfiguration in response to processing the copied one or more packets.4. The method of claim 3, further comprising performing a logical ORoperation on the one or more function flag bits to set the copy-to-CPUbit to an off configuration.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinprocessing the one or more packets is performed in a control plane of anetwork.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the network traffic isreceived by a switch and the switch generates the network traffic flowrecord and processes the one or more packets.
 7. A system comprising:one or more processors configured to receive and transmit packets acrossa network; and a memory comprising instructions for the one or moreprocessors to: receive network traffic; generate a network traffic flowrecord associated with the received network traffic, the network trafficflow record including a copy-to-CPU bit and function flag bits, whereinone or more of the function flag bits are in an on configuration; setthe copy-to-CPU bit to an on configuration; in response to thecopy-to-CPU bit being set to an on configuration, copy one or morepackets of the network traffic of the network traffic flow to a cacheaccessible by the one or more processors; process the one or more copiedpackets by one or more functions, based on the one or more function flagbits in the on configuration, to generate network flow analytics, inresponse to the one or more functions generating network flow analytics,setting the one or more function flag bits to an off configuration; andset the copy-to-CPU bit to an off configuration.
 8. The system of claim7, wherein the memory further comprises instructions to provide thenetwork flow analytics to one or more assurance platforms.
 9. The systemof claim 7, wherein the copy-to-CPU bit is set to an off configurationin response to respective configurations of the one or more functionflag bits, and, wherein the memory further comprises instructions to setthe one or more function flag bits to an off configuration in responseto processing the copied one or more packets.
 10. The system of claim 9,wherein the memory further comprises instructions to perform a logicalOR operation on the one or more function flag bits to set thecopy-to-CPU bit to an off configuration.
 11. The system of claim 7,wherein processing the one or more packets is performed in a controlplane of a network.
 12. A non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors,cause the one or more processors to: receive network traffic; generate anetwork traffic flow record associated with the received networktraffic, the network traffic flow record including a copy-to-CPU bit andfunction flag bits, wherein one or more of the function flag bits are inan on configuration; set the copy-to-CPU bit to an on configuration; inresponse to the copy-to-CPU bit being set to an on configuration, copyone or more packets of the network traffic of the network traffic flowto a cache accessible by a processor; processing the one or more copiedpackets by one or more functions, based on the one or more function flagbits in the on configuration, to generate network flow analytics; inresponse to the one or more functions generating network flow analytics,setting the one or more function flag bits to an off configuration; andset the copy-to-CPU bit to an off configuration.
 13. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions furthercause the one or more processors to provide the network flow analyticsto one or more assurance platforms.
 14. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 12, wherein the copy-to-CPU bit is set to anoff configuration in response to respective configurations of the one ormore function flag bits, and the instructions further cause the one ormore processors to set the one or more function flag bits to an offconfiguration in response to processing the copied one or more packets.15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein theinstructions further cause the one or more processors to perform alogical OR operation on the one or more function flag bits to set thecopy-to-CPU bit to an off configuration.
 16. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 12, wherein processing the one or more packetsis performed in a control plane of a network.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the network traffic isreceived by a switch and the switch generates the network traffic flowrecord and processes the one or more packets.